“No, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Of course it does. If he was some sleazebag who only wanted a quick, easy score, he would have made a move. But, instead, he slept on the couch. Did you lock the bedroom door before you went to sleep?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Yes or no?”
Fiona ate the last bite of her donut. “No.”
A grin stretched over Liz’s face that would have put the Cheshire Cat to shame.
“What?” Fiona bit out.
“I’m just curious,” her friend said. “Did you leave the door unlocked because you trusted him not to come in, or because you hoped he would?”
Chapter 13
Throughamixtureofluck, skill, and sheer determination, all the recruits passed the simulations, even Troy, though Pinto suspected he’d gotten a few helpful hints from Luther.
The next week would be spent in the fitness center, where the recruits would work in teams of two to learn close combat techniques and defensive tactics, including how to disable and restrain assailants armed with guns, knives, chemical agents, or blunt force objects. They’d also learn de-escalation techniques, because defusing the situation was often a better solution in a civilian environment.
“Jacobsen, you’re with Samuels. Rosario, you’re with Vogel. Calibuso, you’re with Garrett.” As Pinto finished rattling off tomorrow morning’s assignments, he noticed that one of the recruits had raised her hand.
“What is it, Rosario?”
She was a tall woman, just shy of six feet, with a slender, athletic build and long, black hair she kept in a braid that trailed halfway down her back. Her resting expression was calm indifference, though he suspected she was continuously taking stock of her environment. “Me and Ronny couldn’t help but notice that you keep pairing us together.”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“Well, yeah, there is. If we’re going to be working with the guys, then we need to be training with them as well, not walled off into our own protective bubble.”
They were the first women hired by Six Points for their personal security division, and incorporating them into the training program was a bit of a work in progress. There had been a few bumps along the way, but both women had performed on par with the men, with Rosario earning one of the highest scores on the shooting range.
Samuels slanted Rosario a look. “No offense, but we’re a lot bigger than you.”
Now there was an understatement. The guy was built like a fucking Mack truck, with muscles on top of muscles, and a neck that was thicker than his head. He had pale skin and a shaved head with thick brows over deep-set eyes, and a heavy, square jaw that would break your hand if you ever punched it.
Undeterred, Rosario craned her neck to meet Samuels’s steely gaze. “And so will some of the guys that we go up against in the field. We need to be able to carry our own weight. And we can, if you give us a chance and stop acting like we might break.”
Garrett’s upper lip curled up in a sneer. “You think you can take one of us down?”
“I know I can take you down,” Rosario shot back, and a chorus of “Oooohs” filled the room. “Step into the ring and I’ll show you.”
Garrett scoffed, a ballsy move for a guy who’d barely made it through the obstacle course in the allotted time. “I don’t hit women.”
“Then what are you going to do if the hostile is female?”
Pinto had encountered that particular scenario on multiple occasions and had the scars to prove it. He hated having to hit a woman; it went against all his instincts. But in their line of work, treating women as if they were helpless was a good way to get killed.
“She’s got a point,” Jacobsen said.
Calibuso nodded. “Ten bucks says Rosario can put him on the mat.”
“Make it twenty and you’re on,” Samuels countered.
Pinto tilted his head toward Ryan, one of the owners of Six Points Security, and dropped his voice to a murmur. “Think we should put a stop to this?”
“Nah, where’s the fun in that? Besides, she’s right. These guys can’t pull a punch just because the hostile is female.”
